More Thurday Picks

Let's go back again to 2 seasons ago, when a young QB was attempting to replace a legend at his school, a legend that led his team to an undefeated season and went #1 in the subsequent NFL draft. The legend was Alex Smith @ Utah, the young QB was Brian Johnson. After mixing some very good performances with some mediocre performances, Johnson went from an athlete playing quarterback, to an athletic quarterback. Johnson turned in 3 consecutive 100+ QB rating performances with 3+ TDs each game, putting up an average of 37 points per game before his season ended with a knee injury. Twenty months later, Johnson will finally be back on the field, hoping to pick up where he left off against Oregon State, a Pac-10 team trying to build a program. The Beavers counter with a platoon of lefty Sean Canfield ,who saw some action early in 2006, but lost his reps when Matt Moore emerged as the team leader and Lyle Moevao. Canfield was a highly-touted HS QB and has the ability to put points on the board, Moevao is seeing his first action. This one, however, will not be dictated by the men under center, instead will be dominated by the respective experienced, oversized OLs, each facing inexperienced, undersized DLs. This one has the makings of a shootout that could go either way, but should go over rather easily. Oreg. St. 38 Utah 35 (OVER 53) [2$] Also Thursday night, mobile QB Bret Meyer of Iowa St. will need his feet behind an untested OL & few returners on offense versus a mature Kent State team with an even shiftier QB Julian Edelman. While both QBs run well, neither is a polished passer and I expect the defenses to be a little ahead of the offenses early in the season. These games against major conference foes tend to mean a little more to MAC teams, but Kent State may fall victim of its need to finish drives in the end zone due to an awful kicking game. Either way, an under is in the cards here. Iowa St. 20 Kent St. 14 (UNDER 46) [1$]